Hazara Nation

Afghan Minister for Mines Ebrahim Adel has said that his ministry had discovered varieties of mines worth of 300 billion US dollars in Afghanistan's central high lands, a local newspaper reported Saturday.

[The English] Daily Outlook quoted the minister, who had recently visited the above provinces, as saying the coal mine reservoir discovered in Yakawlang District of [central] Bamyan Province could be more than 200 million tons.

He said that the iron mine discovered in the same district could have some 1 billion tons of the metal.

The mining of the entire underground treasury would be leased to private sectors in future, according to officials at the ministry.

Afghanistan has already leased its biggest copper mine in Logar Province to the China Metallurgical Group Corp. months ago.

Meantime, a press release of the Afghan Foreign Ministry issued here Saturday said that Afghan Minister for Public Work Dr Sohrab Ali Safari and Italian ambassador to Afghanistan Ettore Francesco Sequi will sign an agreement for the rehabilitation of the second section of the Maydan Shahr-Bamyan Road today.

Work on the 136-km road linking Kabul through [Maydan] Wardag Province to the central Bamyan Province began in 2006 with 151 million US dollars financial support from Italy and is expected to be completed within the next three years.

Originally published by Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in English 0841 12 Jul 08.

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